Well, it was too early to brag about open software. I always supported the idea that having the code is nice, but making any useful changes to it is hard.
The reason is simple about the amount of time you can invest in the project. If we take dasBlog as an example, it support FreeTextBox, which is a rich text box editor that output HTML.
All is good, as long as you remain in Internet Explorer. I’ve recently moved to Firefox, just to try the platform, and naturally I thought to use it to post to my blog.
The problem is that while I can post, I can only do it from a normal textbox.

This is acceptable behaviour, since the version of FreeTextBox can’t display on Mozilla’s browsers, it downgrade nicely to a simple textbox.
[Oh, for the days when IE had a natural htmlbox. Netscape/Mozilla would’ve’d to follow, and we had this without the contortions that we use now.]
Now, this is a good and acceptable behaviour on the side of dasBlog, but it’s not acceptable to me.
There is a new version of FreeTextBox that does both IE & Mozilla (including Netscape & FireFox) so I figured what the heck, I can easily add the new textbox and be done with in a few minutes.
Unfortantely, FreeTextBox 2.0 is not code compatible with the version that dasBlog uses. This mean that I’ve to do much more than merely drop the new version.
This means that I’ve to change the code, and this means that I’ve to grok it. Now, dasBlog isn’t that big, but it still have over 45 Kloc thousnads lines of C# code as well as another 25 + thousands lines of html/aspx code.

That is quite a bit of code to grok. In essense, unless I’m willing to dedicate two to three days some time to completely understand what dasBlog does, I won’t be able to touch the code at all.
I sent an email to newtelligence, the company that maitain the code, about it. I think it should be about an hour change for some one who knows the code vs four days for me.

It doesn’t help that dasBlog doesn’t has any documentation regarding its makeup, I’ve to delve into the code to see what it does, and I’m not feeling really up to it right now.

After several months of trying, I’ve finally managed to setup a blog on my site. It wouldn’t have been that hard, if I wasn’t so locked on using .Text blog, unfotuntely .Text require the really expansive Ms Sql Server. I’m hosting this site on shared computer, so I don’t get the privilege to use MSDE, and shelling out for MS Sql Server would cost an arm & leg be quite expansive.

I wanted to use MySql since I got it for free, but .Text doesn’t support it. I wasn’t worried, after all, I’m a programmer myself, and a blog isn’t really that hard to do.

So I did one, using MySql and a nice little engine, if I say so myself, and just when I’m about done – with all the major stuff complete (Rss, CommentAPI, BloggerAPI, etc) and I’ve only error handling minor issues to work on – I uploaded the site to the production server, and then it all fell apart.

Non of the native .Net MySql providers managed to work on the production server. I tried SevenObjects’ MySqlClient, MySql.Net, Direct MySql etc, and nothing works. It all goes very well on my machine, but crach and burn fall apart when I’m trying it on the production server.

I’d to abandon my wonderful project, and decided to look for file storage solutions for a blog. While I was searching, I found dasBlog, which had everything I wanted:

• Free as beer.
• Free as speech – Not as important, but good anyway.
• Used .Net (And more importantly, C#, so I can easily read the code if I’ve to.)
• Didn’t require expansive additionl software.
• Highly customizable.
• Has support if I run into some trouble.

All in all, I’m very pleased with it. We are newly aquinted, but I’ve a feeling it’s going to be a wonderful friendship.

And last but not least, a really big thank you should go to Shay & Hagay from Mirshetet for helping me set up the site, I’d all sort of funky problems with permissions, and I’m their first customer that uses .Net, so it’s took a while to remove the rough edges. Nevertheless, they were nothing but gracious and friendly, even though I called them at weird hours during the holiday. Wonderful guys.

Welcome to my humble abode, traveler.

My name is Ayende Rahien, a little known mage that deals with the mysteries of the modern world. I dabble in programming and science fiction and occasionally I attempt a work of fiction. I welcome you to my place, and invite you to share a drink and relax, we've much to discuus.

Do not fear me, for I'm nice.

But remember: "Never anger a wizard, for they are subtle and quick to anger."